Sustainable entrepreneurship and corporate political activity: Overcoming market barriers in the clean energy sector

While sustainable entrepreneurs face market barriers that require them to become politically active, how to accomplish this has not yet been explored. This paper seeks to address this research gap based on an exploratory study of the Dutch clean energy sector. Findings suggest that sustainable entrepreneurs are politically active but pursue these activities using collective action. This raises issues because they face the presence of incumbents in industry associations that seek to thwart their political influence. The paper concludes with propositions about the conditions for sustainable entrepreneurs to realize political access and influence through collective action.